Men's basketball: Thomas sparks Ohio State's win over Washington

UNCASVILLE, Conn. _ When a few shots in a row don’t drop for Deshaun Thomas, he can still, even as a seasoned junior and preseason All-American, fall victim to a crisis in confidence.

“He just gets a little worked up,” Ohio State guard Aaron Craft said, “and when he gets worked up, he doesn’t play how he’s capable of. I just try to relax him as much as possible.”

Such was the case Saturday, against Rhode Island’s switching defenses, which bothered Thomas and the Buckeyes for a while before they solved them.

And then there are days like yesterday, when even if Craft would have said something, Thomas might not have heard him, so deep into the zone was he.

“I felt good,” Thomas said. “I knocked those first couple down and it was on from there.”

He knocked down his first seven shots, to be precise, and went on to tie his career high with 31 points to lead fourth-ranked Ohio State to a 77-66 victory over Washington in the championship game of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament.

Aaron Craft added 18 points and four assists for the Buckeyes (3-0), who won for the second time in as many days at Mohegan Sun Arena. They beat Rhode Island on Saturday behind Thomas’ 25 points and 10 rebounds.

“I’m very excited about the way we played in a lot of stretches,” coach Thad Matta said. “I don’t think we played particularly well (against Rhode Island). We felt this was a game (where) you were going to have to man up, you were going to have to make big-time plays.”

The Buckeyes did, especially inside, where center Evan Ravenel was dwarfed by Washington’s 7-foot, 260-pound Aziz N’Diaye. Ravenel responded to the challenge with a career-high 12 points and three offensive rebounds and took N’Diaye away from the basket to open driving lanes for his teammates.

“We wanted to get him removed from the basket as far as we could,” Matta said.

“I just listened to the coaches and listened really well in film and preparation,” Ravenel said. “They told me I had to come in and play physical and be strong and be aggressive. Like coach said, man up.”

Ohio State was much sharper attacking Washington’s man-to-man defense at the outset than it had been against Rhode Island, and it helped the Buckeyes take a 41-31 halftime lead.

After a racehorse start to the game, the Buckeyes gained the advantage by keeping Washington out of transition and making the Huskies to shoot more contested jump shots.

“The biggest (difference) was the physicality. We didn’t have it in the first half,” said guard C.J. Wilcox, who led Washington with 18 points. “We started to figure it out in the second half, but by that time it was too late.”

Washington halved its halftime deficit with back-to-back threes in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second half, and it was within seven points twice in the last 10 minutes.

But the Buckeyes were in the bonus at the free throw line by that time, and they made their last 12 _ eight by Craft _ to keep the Huskies at bay. Ohio State scored on nine of 10 possessions at one point to push its lead to 17 points with less than three minutes remaining.

Ohio State shot 47.4 percent from the field for the game and outscored Washington 32-18 in the paint.

“Defensively, they were just a hard cover,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said. “Going into this game, Aaron Craft had turned the ball over twice in 71 minutes, and I looked at halftime and he had no turnovers in 20 minutes. When you have a guy with the ball controlling his team like that, you’re probably going to get good shots.”